Padres Free Agency Wish List: Ranking the Top 4 International Free Agents Heading to MLB

With free agency officially having opened Monday, there are a few names San Diego Padres fans might be unfamiliar with that could be tied to the team over the next few weeks.

They are the international free agents. This year, there are four primary candidates, with one clear-cut leader among that group. None of them scream out as a must-have for the Padres, but at least three of the four would be good additions.

All will have to sign before the lockout begins or return to their previous teams. Here is how I would rank these players from a Padres perspective.

1. Teruaki Sato, 3B

The left-handed slugger for the Hanshin Tigers won the Triple Crown in Japan’s Central League this year with a slash line of .306/.383/.609, 39 homers and 106 RBIs. That was coming off a 2025 season in which he was named MVP—he is likely to be the 2026 MVP, too—in which he put up a .277/.345/.579 slash line, 40 homers and 102 RBIs. His previous homer high was 25 in 2023, but he has driven in at least 84 in three seasons.

Sato, who will turn 28 in March, doesn’t quite have the power of Munetaka Murakami, who hit 35 homers with a .207/.347/.478 as a Chicago White Sox rookie this year. However, Sato is better at swinging at pitches in the zone, although he does chase quite a bit, which led to a 26.7% strikeout rate in 2026. Some of his swing-and-miss has been attributed to trying to do damage on every pitch, so perhaps an MLB hitting coach could convince Sato, who has terrific bat speed, to not swing as hard nor chase as much. He did finish fourth in NPB in walks this year.

Third base is occupied for the Padres by superstar Manny Machado, but Sato has questions defensively at the hot corner. He is a candidate to be moved to a corner outfield spot (or even first base) and the Padres could use a big bat in left, a spot right now occupied by the platoon of Dustin Harris and Samad Taylor.

Most contract projections are five years with an average annual value between $16 million and $25 million. Depending on how teams rank players, Sato is either the top position player available or in the top three, so the competition will be stiff and could push his contract beyond even that range.

2. Kaima Taira, RHP

The right-hander, who turns 27 this month, is the better of the two pitchers on this list, but also has a wider range of outcomes. At 5-foot-8 and 209 pounds, Taira is built more like a small tank. As MLB Trade Rumors equated, he looks more like a mound version of Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk.

Taira has typical MLB velocity (95-97 mph on his four-seamer, 92-94 mph on his cutter) and is armed with a good splitter, slider, changeup and a rather average curveball. His height, which gets Marcus Stroman comps, helps him create different angles while also having better-than-expected extension, helping his effectiveness.

He flourished this year in Japan’s Pacific League with the Seibu Lions. Taira went 12-5 with a 1.35 ERA in 146 innings and 23 games. His ERA was by far the lowest among pitchers with 100 innings by nearly three-quarters of a run. He walked 45 and struck out 141, the fifth-most in the Central League. Walks do seem to be a bit of an issue, and Taira had a forearm injury in 2024 that limited him to 52⅔ innings and forced him to come back as a reliever in 2025, tossing the same number of innings. With all of that in mind, some teams may prefer Taira as a dominant reliever instead of a starter, despite a good workload this year.

His contract projections settle around four years with an $18 million AAV, perhaps including opt-outs.

3. Hiromi Itoh, RHP

The right-hander from the Nippon Ham Fighters is the safer bet of the two pitchers here. He is slightly older, having turned 29 in August, but he doesn’t have the same premium velocity, sitting in the low-90s. Where he excels is in locating his pitches.

Height is also an issue here as Itoh is 5-foot-9, but he is durable, having thrown 170 innings each of the last three years. His arsenal, with a large number of pitches, isn’t dynamic and he profiles as a back-end-of-the-rotation guy in MLB.

Itoh won the Sawamura Award, Nippon Professional Baseball’s version of the Cy Young Award, in 2025 as he went 14-8 with a 2.52 ERA in 24 games and a career-best 196⅔ innings. He struck out 195 and walked 29. This year, Itoh followed up his banner 2025 by going 10-10 with a 3.18 ERA in 26 games and 172⅔ innings, walking 34 and punching out 159.

Contractually, Itoh could be a budget-friendly addition to the pitching staff. He is only likely to get one or two years and around $10 million AAV while trying to prove himself against MLB competition.

4. Si Hwan Roh, 3B

The top player coming over from the Korea Baseball Organization turns 26 in December, thus the youngest member of this group. He played for a bad Hanwha Eagles team (57-83-4) and had a slash line of .283/.360/.505, hitting 29 homers and driving in 96. He has been a fairly consistent producer the last four years, hitting between 24 and 32 homers and posting between 89 and 101 RBIs. His OPS also ranged between .810 and .929.

Positionally, there isn’t really a fit with the Padres unless Roh, a right-handed hitter, is willing to move out to left field. He can play both corner infield spots, giving him some versatility if he does add the outfield to his repertoire.  he could possibly help bring the better side of Padres infielder Sung-Mun Song out after the latter struggled offensively in his first year in MLB.

Roh didn’t make many top free-agent lists, so he'll probably be looking for something in Song’s range from last offseason (between $3 million and $4 million per year).

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